A Broader Base

Before the recall vote in California even started, Larry Elder was crying foul. But he conceded and hushed up when election results showed the recall had failed substantially. Perhaps he was advised by those in his party who still want to promote another election as fraudulent. If everyone in the party cries wolf, even some of the base might tire of it.

I think there is a lesson here: with enough pressure from reality, even the most deluded may revert to acting reasonably. Some will continue to believe all the lies along with the big one that all the smaller ones were leading up to. But gradually more and more people are becoming skeptical and disgusted. And, in California at least, enough took the time and effort to vote to make a difference. Had it been closer, the Republicans might still be contesting.

Some Democrats advocate for using Republican tactics to beat them at their own game. But some of us prefer not to play dirty. We just need to show up. And we need to invite others to join us.

Many Republicans accept that Biden won the election and are (almost) as appalled as the rest of us that his opponent thought he could and should get away with overturning the will of the people. Republicans like Adam Kinzinger and Ed McBroom may be an often-despised minority among Republicans who prefer power to responsibility, but they have not disappeared.

In a choice between our country's two parties, where is a decent conservative to turn?

Kinzinger has consistently said and demonstrated that his integrity is more important to him than his job. But if he loses his next primary, who will he vote for? Who will his supporters vote for?

A traditional conservative has a hard time voting for many of the policies promoted by Democrats. But the conservative tradition also did not peddle in the lies, cheating, and bullying that have become the trademarks of the dramatically changed Republican party. Anyone with moderate political views is no longer welcome in the Republican party unless they pretend otherwise. The definition of a Republican is not what it was.

The Democrat party has problems of its own. Some members are distinctively progressive. Others represent the majority of moderates still left in Congress. On many issues, the two ends of the party continuum don't see eye to eye. Again, some Democrats want us to be more like the Republicans, with almost no one breaking ranks on a rigid set of views.

But, for now at least, the Democratic party has a bigger role. It needs to embrace a larger constituency. It needs to allow for the differences of perspective among all who have been expelled from the Republican personality cult. And we need to provide those voters caught between with a reason to vote for Democratic candidates.

I understand and share frustration with Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinnema. But if we demonize them, we are saying there is no room for debate. We are likely turning away a bloc of voters who are wondering if they can comfortably vote for a Democrat, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

If Democrats cannot find a way to tolerate the views of the center left—and now the center right—and to embrace the ensuing debates, we are unlikely to make the gains needed to undo voter suppression and gerrymandering that are already leaching votes from our base. Without a firm majority we will not address health care, immigration, climate change, and other issues of our time. And we won't gain that majority without making it clear that our party is willing to welcome and respect a broader base.

True, there's too little time to deal with rising temperatures, and we need to listen to the voices of those telling us to hurry. But if we rush without bringing enough people with us, we will fail even faster.

Especially now, as we approach the 2022 mid-term elections, there is too much at stake to vilify good people whose support we want and need. We need solid margins to quiet radical Republicans who are eager to cry foul at fair balls.

Unthinkable

In an interview, Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says he'll vote for Trump in 2020:

I intend to vote for Donald Trump in 2020, but my shift is from reluctantly not voting for him in 2016 to what you might call reluctantly voting for him in 2020, and hoping for his reëlection, because the alternative is increasingly unthinkable.

President Mohler comes across as measured and sensible, in part because he finds Trump pretty disgusting. He's convinced that other evangelicals will criticize him for criticizing Trump. He follows his reluctant endorsement with:

I will not become an apologist for the misbehavior of the President and for what I see as glaring deficiencies in his private and public character. There will be a good many evangelicals angry with me for stating what I just said to you.

Missing from the interview is any explanation of what Dr Mohler means by unthinkable. So I shall attempt to fill this gap:

• Health care: Can you imagine the horrors of health care for all Americans? Why, I may have to wait in line because the clinics are caring for poor people too. As the venerable Ben Carson has said, the ACA is comparable to slavery. Waiting in line for your children's vaccinations is like having them sold down the river. Think about it, which is worse? Hard to tell!
• Homosexual people: Everything they do is disgusting. Take my word for it. No matter that they aren't harming children like Catholic priests or abusing women like Southern Baptist preachers. I don't like them. They are horrible. We should do everything we can to put them down and lock them out (if not up) and forbid them to live their lives like normal people.
• Abortion: This, of course, is the key issue. Democrats want to kill babies! They may have come up with the idea of reducing abortion in the US by 95%, but we cannot support that notion because it isn't punitive enough—and because it came from Democrats. Abortion must be outlawed so that only rich people can afford to have it done safely, and poor people will die out of desperation, which is only right because they are the worst offenders and don't really count anyhow.
• Conservative judges: This is very important, because it ensures that this country will be cleansed of the previous evils! They also consistently favor rich people over poor people, which is how God ordained the world to be.
• Religious liberty: Can you imagine anyone from a religion other than my own being allowed to discriminate against me and my seminary? Only people of my religious persuasion should be able to discriminate against Muslims and homosexuals and liberals. That's why religious freedom is so important.
• Foreign policy: Some people think you should treat your neighbor as you want to be treated. This does not apply to countries. Our president is not afraid to insult and abandon our allies in favor of tyrants, such as Putin and Erdogan. They are like kings, and the Bible talks a lot about kingdoms, so this is only right. Also, many of the countries that our kingly president insults are led by women, and this is an abomination!
• Immigration: People from s***hole countries do not belong here. Their church leaders should come to my seminary and then leave, taking our enlightened views with them.
• Environment: I don't believe scientists who study climate. I only believe scientists who believe the earth is 6,000 years old. I don't know any of those, but they are the ones I believe. Also, while God demands dogmatic responses to other issues, if this one exists He will take care of it without any help from me.
• Other: There are many other reasons, too many to list. For example, rich people support my school, and they think it is important to vote for the party that favors them over all others. That is why we need to vote for a man who agrees and does a lot to help rich people. He is not selfish. He wants other rich people to be able to cheat and lie and face no consequences, just as he has done. It is my God-given duty to support him in maintaining this order. Any other order is unimaginable!

I'm being sarcastic. I doubt Dr Mohler sees things quite this way. But he owes us an explanation of the ways that the alternative to Trump is unthinkable. In what moral universe are more-caring policies less acceptable than:

• Putting children in cages
• Cheering white supremacy
• Pardoning a sheriff and a military commander convicted and imprisoned for extreme cruelty
• Taking no responsibility for subverting the US response to a pandemic
• Calling women lurid names
• Promoting increased carbon emissions
• Dishonoring military heroes
• Passing a tax law that overwhelmingly favors rich people while increasing the deficit
• Disparaging immigrants
• Watching porn
• Sleeping with a favorite porn star
• Paying porn stars to hush, after paying them for other favors
• Extorting an ally to lie about a political competitor
• Insisting that true stories are lies, while lying about true stories
• Nearly 20,000 lies (not counting ones that cannot be verified, such as claiming not to hear someone repeatedly shout "white power")
• The list is endless (I'm happy to accept suggestions for adding to it)

Sad to say, far fewer white evangelicals will be angry with Mr Mohler for supporting Trump than for not supporting him ardently enough.

To assert without evidence that a moderate Democrat is an "increasingly unthinkable" option is both ridiculous and irresponsible. It's a tactic from Trump's playbook: repeat it often enough, and many people will assume there must be something to it. Aversion to truth, repudiation of truth, once would have been considered heretical among evangelicals.

No doubt some reasonable theologians like Mohler have reasons for supporting Trump that I am not aware of. But they must be aware of how they look and sound.

It is not acceptable to throw out vague insults in defense of depravity. Have you no decency? Ante up. Give us a full justification, or convert and publicly announce that you cannot support this vile administration and all that it stands for. Anything else is unthinkable.